Turkey's top court has 'no right' to probe referendum

By Kemal Karadag

ANKARA

Turkey’s justice minister said on Thursday the country’s Constitutional Court had no right to investigate Sunday's referendum result.

"The Constitutional Court has no right and authority to review the referendum according to the Constitution and the conventions that Turkey is party to," Bekir Bozdag told A Haber TV network.

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has said it intended to employ all legal ways to challenge the result.

However, Bozdag said the law was clear: "Our Constitution explicitly rules that the decisions of the Supreme Election Board (YSK) are final and no authority can be resorted to against these decisions," he said.

"Even if such an application is made, the Constitutional Court has no choice but to reject it," the minister added.

The CHP has led criticism of the April 16 referendum result, particularly the YSK's decision to include ballot papers unverified by local electoral boards in the count.

It had submitted petitions to cancel the election result, however, the election board announced on Wednesday it rejected appeals made by the CHP, the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and the Patriotic Party (Vatan Partisi).

The CHP said it would not recognize the result and would explore every avenue to overturn it, including applying to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, after the YSK rejected all appeals on Wednesday.

Voters went to the polls on Sunday to decide whether to approve changes to the country’s constitution which would usher in an executive presidency.

Unofficial results show the Yes campaign won with 51.41 percent, while the No vote stood at 48.59 percent. Voter turnout was 85.46 percent.

The official results are due to be released at the beginning of May.

Reporting by Kemal Karadag; Writing by Burcu Arik